StumbleUpon's New VP of Product Surfs, Wears a Green Hat

StumbleUpon announced today that it has hired Cody Simms as its new vice president of product. Simms will be leaving his current position as vice president of product management at Yahoo to fill the job. The StumbleUpon position will put him in charge of the company's product management and design, including the Paid Discovery advertising platform.

“Cody has great experience and vision connecting consumers with engaging and entertaining experiences online,” said Garrett Camp, chairman and co-founder of StumbleUpon. “During his time at Yahoo, he created and grew several key properties and held leadership roles across a number of different high profile initiatives, including media, social, developer platforms, and publisher networks. We believe his experience will take StumbleUpon to the next level.”

Simms held various positions at Yahoo for almost seven years. Before that, he held product management positions at The New York Times, Sprint, and NBC's internet division. He lists surfing as his hobby, though another seems to be wearing his favorite green trucker hat.

“StumbleUpon is solving an incredibly exciting problem: there is an ever-growing, nearly infinite amount of media available to discover and no easy way to know what’s new and interesting,” said Simms. “StumbleUpon has stepped in as your personalized guide for the web, providing a simple interface across all key devices to help you easily discover new, surprising, and engaging content matched to your interests. We’re redefining content discovery, and I couldn’t be more excited to join.”

In an example of how clearly tech-savvy Simms is, his Twitter handle is simply his first name, @Cody. His Twitter stream is currently filled with replies to congratulatory well-wishes, though he did take the time to reveal why he left his established position at Yahoo to join a startup: